Yarn cutter assembly



Sept. 1970 J. J. MORROCCO m, ET AL 5,34

YARN CUTTER ASSEMBLY Filed April 30, 1968 INVENTOR. JOSEPH J. MORROCCO 11' HANS H.

United States Patent "ice 3,526,348 YARN CUTTER ASSEMBLY Joseph J. Morrocco III, Cranston, and Hans H. Richter,

Warwick, R.I., assignors to Leesona Corporation, Warwick, R.I., a corporation of Massachusetts Filed Apr. 30, 1968, Ser. No. 725,385 Int. Cl. B26f 3/00 U.S. Cl. 225-93 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A yarn cutter which receives an advancing strand of yarn and holds the strand out of contact with a cutting edge by means of a retaining member. When suflicient pressure is applied by the yarn to the retaining member, the yarn is released and cut. The cutter is illustrated in combination with a take-up machine including an aspirator for advancing the yarn until it is secured to the take-up spindle when starting a new package, at which time the yarn is cut.

This invention relates to textile equipment and, more particularly, to apparatus for cutting a strand of yarn.

As used herein, the term yarn is employed in a general sense to apply to all types of strandular material whether textile or otherwise, and the term package is used to denote the product of a winding machine, whatever its form.

Various types of yarn cutters are known in the textile industry. Many of these cutters have cutting blades which move relative to each other. Other cutters present only a single cutting edge. Moving blade cutters require some form of power to operate the blades, and are of course more expensive than a cutter using a single stationary blade. These latter cutters generally have the yarn running across the blade, which hastens dulling of the blade. When the yarn tension increases sufficiently, the yarn is cut.

The invention is directed to a yarn cutter having a stationary cutting edge. In brief, the yarn is received in a guiding slot in the cutter and is retained out of engagement with the cutting edge by a retaining member which holds the yarn until the yarn is sufiiciently tensioned to overcome a spring force holding the retaining member, whereupon the tensioned yarn snaps against the cutting edge and is out.

It is a primary object of this invention to provide a new and improved cutter.

Another object is to provide a new and improved cutter having a stationary yarn cutting edge. A related object is provision in such a cutter for retaining a strand out of engagement with the cutting edge until the strand is sufficiently tensioned to snap against the edge, resulting in a clean cut.

A more specific object is provision of new and improved apparatus for cutting a strand, the apparatus hav ing a base and a pair of spaced apart guides secured to and extending in the same general direction from the base to define a guiding slot having an open end for receiving the strand, with a cutting edge extending across the slot for cutting the strand, and a releasable retaining member holding the strand within the slot and spaced from the blade, and releasing the strand for movement against the cutting edge responsive to a predetermined pressure of the strand toward the cutting edge.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the folowing description and the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary, schematic front perspective view of a take-up machine incorporating an embodiment of a cutter;

3,526,348 Patented Sept. 1, 1970 FIG. 2 is a rear view of the cutter;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken line 3-3 in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 2, of another embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view generally along the line 5-5 in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged sectional view taken generally along the line 6-6 in FIG. 4; and

FIG. 7 is an enlarged sectional view taken generally along the line 7-7 in FIG. 4.

Referring to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows a yarn cutter 10 in conjunction with a take-up machine 12, such as a Leesona No. 959 Take-up Machine, manufactured by Leesona Corporation, Warwick, RI. The take-up machine has a spindle 14 which telescopically receives a package core 16. To start winding, a strand of yarn Y is advanced across a hub 18 of the spindle 14, across a guide wheel 20, and then through the cutter 10 to an aspirator 22. Upon starting the spindle 14, as its speed increases enough to start winding, a yarn engaging finger 24 flips out and snags the advancing strand of yarn Y and starts the yarn to winding onto the core 16.

Referring to FIG. 2, while the spindle 14 is coming up to winding speed, the yarn Y is advanced through a guiding slot 26 and across a retaining member 28 of the cutter 10. As soon as the strand is engaged by the spindles finger 24, its direction of lineal movement is reversed and strand tension is increased almost immediately so that the pressure of the strand against the retaining member 28 causes the retaining member to release the strand. Now, the strand snaps against a cutting edge portion 30 of cutter blades 32 and is severed with the'free end removed through the aspirator 22. The strand should preferably be drawn against the cutting edge at an angle of about degrees with the faces of the cutter blades.

With reference to FIGS. 1-3, the yarn cutter 10 includes a base in the form of a cylindrical steel rod 34 having a small notch 36 closely receiving and aligning the cutting blades 32 supported on a pin 38 fixed in the rod 34. Each blade has a beveled cutting edge and together these edges form the V-shaped cutting edge portion 30. A pair of guides 40 are received in a larger notch 42 and overlie the blades 32, being clamped against the blades by a pair of bolts 44 threaded into the rod 34. These guides 40 are spaced apart and between opposed edges delimit the guiding slot 26. They extend in the same general direction upwardly past the blades 32 and are flared outwardly at their top ends to guide the strand into the slot. In order to shield the sharp edge portion 30 of the blades, the guides 40 are offset as at 46 (FIG. 3) to overlie these edges.

The retaining member 28 is in the form of a finger having a U-shaped end portion 48 which embraces an outer edge portion of one of the guides 40 and is pivoted thereto by a pivot pin 50. A spiral torsion spring 52 is telescoped on the pivot pin and has one end 54 engaged with the bight of the U-shaped portion 48 and an opposite end 56 extending through a hole in the guide 40 to urge the retaining member upwardly about its pivot until the bight of the U-shaped portion 48 engages the outer edge of the guide 40. In this position the upper edge of the retaining member 28 is generally normal to the slot 26.

When the strand of yarn Y is engaged by the yarn engaging finger 24 of the rotating spindle 14, the increased yarn tension causes the yarn to exert sufficient pressure on the retaining member 28 to pivot it downwardly whereupon the yarn snaps against the cutting edge portion 30 and is sheared.

With reference to FIGS. 4-7, a cutter assembly 60 is shown including a base 62 including a mounting shank generally along the 64 and the lower portion 66 of a body 68 pivoted on the upper part of the shank and held operatively fixed in oriented position by a set screw 70 extending through an elongated slot 72 in the body 68. From the base portion 66 of the body 68, a pair of generally U-shaped guides 74 extend upwardly, the guides having hollows 76 opposed to each other. Blades 78 having a cutting portion 79 similar to those previously described, are anchored in a holder portion 80 of the shank 64 and are encased within the hollows 76 of the guides 74 which are spaced apart to provide a guiding slot 82. A retaining member 84 is in the form of a thin finger 86 secured to a small block 88 pivoted between opposite legs 90 of one of the guides 74 by means of a pivot pin 92. A spiral torsion spring 94 (FIG. 6) is telescoped on the pivot pin 92 and has one end 96 seated against the guide 74 and an opposite end 98 seated against the block 88 to urge the finger upwardly. The block 88 engages the bight of the guide 74 to limit upward movement of the finger 86 to a position generally normal to the slot 82. Operation of this embodiment is the same as that previously described. When the tension of the yarn Y becomes sulficiently high, the pressure of the yarn against the finger 86 causes the finger to pivot downwardly, permitting the yarn to snap against the cutting edge portion of the blades 78 and be severed thereby.

While this invention has been described with reference to a particular embodiments in a particular environment, various changes may be apparent to one skilled in the art and the invention is therefore not to be limited to such embodiments or environment except as set forth in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for severing a strand comprising means defining a slot having an open end for receiving the strand, severing means extending across said slot for severing the strand, retaining means for holding the strand in said slot and operable to release the strand for movement toward said severing means responsive to a predetermined pressure of the strand in a direction toward said severing means, and biasing means urging said retaining means into a retaining position extending across said slot for holding the strand spaced from said severing means.

2. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said retaining means is pivotally mounted on said means defining said slot and is spring pressed toward said retaining position.

3. Apparatus as set forth in claim 2 wherein said severing means has a generally V-shaped cutting edge portion.

4. Apparatus as set forth in claim 3 wherein said severing means has a cutting edge portion facing the retaining means, and said means defining said slot includes guide means offset across said edge portion.

5. Apparatus as set forth in claim 4 wherein said severing means is enclosed within said guide members.

6. Apparatus as set forth in claim 5 wherein said guide members each has a generally enclosed zone and the severing means and the retaining member are within the enclosed zones.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,140,156 121938 Harschnek 225-20 X FOREIGN PATENTS 20,461 12/1890 Great Britain. 788,906 1/1958 Great Britain. 1,166,402 6/1958 France.

FRANK T. YOST, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 

